W.N.L. Fonseka, working in the provincial obscurity of Anuradhapura, is living proof that one need not be armed with an engineering degree to blossom forth as an inventor.’ I am no engineer, but I must humbly observe that I have managed to achieve by dint of hard work, what most qualified engineers in this country have failed to achieve with their university education. I have invented a series of easily manipulable, non-cumbersome machines which could help in invigorating the rural industrial sector’, Fonseka explained in an interview with this newspaper.

Coconut oil extractors and filters, cereal grinders, Papadam and noodles manufacturing machines, animal feed machines, paddy husking machines, steam boilers, dryers, cement block and lime stone grinders, paper cutters and agricultural equipment of numerous kinds, are just a few of Fonseka’s inventions which are of immense benefit to the rural entrepreneur. ’I am just one instance of a rural entrepreneur with an inventive capability, who is languishing in rural obscurity for want of sustained state support and recognition. There are plenty of others who are blossoming and fading in the rural outbacks on account of there not being a state programme to recognize and support indigenous talent’, Fonseka said by way of drawing attention to the magnitude of the problems faced by this country’s rural entrepreneurs.

However, undaunted by these setbacks, Fonseka intends to be of service to rural Sri Lanka. Besides running his equipment manufacturing concern, Nayomi Engineers, Anuradhapura, he has launched a vocational training centre in the same district for the purpose of empowering rural youth and rendering them employable. He does this free of charge as a social service venture with the hope of eventually absorbing these youth into his enterprise. At present some eight youth are thus gainfully occupied but he expects to expand his programme and provide employable skills to many more youngsters. Although these exertions are going apparently unnoticed by the state, the Business for Peace Alliance (BPA) has provided him ready cooperation.

Space is a major constraint to the expansion of his business and training project and he has proposed to the authorities that he be given the opportunity of using an idling IDB building in Anuradhapura for these purposes, for which he would pay a rent, but this appeal has gone unheeded.

The opportunities for rural industrial enterprise in the North Central Province, however, are numerous, Fonseka points out. There are business opportunities in coconut, Kohomba and ‘Mee’ seeds, for instance, which are currently going abegging but which could be successfully exploited with the use of his machinery. There is no programme to rouse the rural dwellers’ interest in these ventures and this is impeding rural development.

Among Fonseka’s achievements is a process for bio-gas manufacture. It is plain to see that the ideas and capabilities of entrepreneurs of his calibre should be incorporated into the country’s development process for the purpose of ushering rural empowerment.